La Cantina Street Kitchen food van has announced it is closing - in order to become a permanent restaurant.

The team behind the much-loved street food van, which dishes up epic burgers and hip sides such as dirty fries and mac and cheese balls, posted on their Facebook page to announce the news on New Year's Day.

Instead of driving their kitchen around to various venues in and around Exeter, they are planning to open a restaurant at Hanlons Brewery in Newton St Cyres.

The post read: "To all of our amazing and loyal customers, a new year brings new beginnings. A revolution is upon us.

"At the end of January we will be saying goodbye to La Cantina Street Kitchen, as we know it, and hello to our NEW restaurant: Beer Factory & Kitchen @ Hanlons Brewery!!!

"Although we will no longer be called La Cantina, we can assure you that the same chefs will be cooking using the same high quality ingredients, alongside the same great front of house staff with the addition of some new faces!

"Not only that, but after a month of finding our feet with the new restaurant, we will be offering your favourite La Cantina dishes to take away from our new place of residence….you can even enjoy a beer while you wait!

"Thank you all for your custom and support over the past six years, we really hope to see you all at our new restaurant in the new year.

"Happy 2019 and Viva La Revolution!"

A Facebook page for the new venture has already been set up.

La Cantina has been operating in and around Exeter for several years and has developed a huge following, thanks to its tasty food and constantly-evolving menu.

Review: La Cantina Street Kitchen

I've known about about La Cantina for a while - this edgy food van that was churning out hipster-friendly burgers and fries in Exminster, Topsham and other places in the evenings.

Teammates on my football team would turn to each other and rave about it whenever the topic of takeaways came up, reacting with faux shock and horror when I confessed I had never tried it.

It wasn't that I didn't want to see what all the fuss was about, it was more that the burger market (and, in particular, the hipster burger market) in Exeter is so saturated at the moment that I just couldn't imagine what La Cantina could offer me what at one point or another *deep breath* Byron, Urban Burger, Five Guys, Meat59, GBK or, my personal fave Hubbox, couldn't.

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But when they recently started pitching up a stone's throw from my house I could ignore them no longer.

La Cantina has harnessed unbeatable marketing combination of turning out quality food and being social-media savvy, so it was unsurprising to see a large queue when I turned up to the car park outside Paramount Personnel.

I got my order in and was told the wait would be about 30 minutes which was fair enough as there were roughly 25 people already waiting for their food by the time I arrived.

The only disappointment was that their delicious-sounding maple glazed chicken strips had already sold out by the time I got there at about 7.15pm.

I consoled myself by ordering the mac and cheese fried balls instead and settled down to watch the chefs go to work, turning out each order at speed, occasionally showing off for the crowd when pouring sauces over towering burgers which steamed in the freezing cold night air.

It's clear this isn't your typical burger van. Those in the kitchen were decked out in their bespoke uniforms, while their organisation was akin to what you would find in any of the more traditional burger restaurants listed above.

The prices reflect that extra attention to detail and service - my bill for a burger, side and two large portions of fries came to £25.

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Back home we tucked in, the crisp and creamy mac and cheese balls disappearing within minutes of being put on the plate.

The burger went in the same direction. We had plumped for La Cantina's trademark La Cantina burger - a tasty concoction of cooked to order steak, smoldering pulled pork and melted cheese in a toasted brioche.

The fries were a different story altogether. Not because they didn't taste great, but because we ordered too many.

A large portion of sweet potato fries and a large portion of pulled pork fries was always looking unlikely, and so it proved.

The pulled pork fries could be eaten as a main on their own. If the burgers on offer weren't so spectacular you could happily just live off these - a box of crispy fries with a pile of melt in the mouth pulled pork piled on top, with a healthy dollop of red cabbage slaw to boot.

Don't worry they didn't go to waste - I took the leftovers to work and had them for lunch.